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As a Data Scientist within the Water Mission Area, US Geological Survey (USGS) some of your specific duties will include:

• Serves as a data science expert, developing rigorous methods of scientific inquiry and analysis associated with the large data resources of the Water Mission Area (WMA), USGS and external data providers. The vast majority of these datasets are rich in complexity, including high resolution time-series observations, free-from text, imagery, and geospatial components.
• Develop machine learning approaches for priority modeling projects; specifically, integrates machine learning into environmental predictive models.
• Lead projects including data-driven modeling, reproducible workflows, data visualization to integrate approaches that span the interface between data science techniques and traditional domain-based techniques into priority USGS-WMA projects.
• Designs analytical models, use cases, and scenarios for data collection, reporting, and decision making in support of a variety of initiatives involving changes in policies, water conditions, and scientific methodology.
• Conducts research as needed to support studies and prepare written products to convey research-based knowledge and information to a variety of audiences.
• Strategize and design projects, prototypes, and/or concepts that bring new data science approaches into the USGS EarthMAP and USGS-WMA water prediction/assessment projects.
• Implement new and existing data science approaches towards building solutions to areas of need. Can include architecting new data science approaches and/or implementing reproducible automation of existing approaches.

Above duties are described at the GS-12 level. At the GS-11 level the employee will be assigned work designed to further develop and refine their technical knowledge and skills.

Conditions of employment

Key Requirements:

1. Applicants must be U.S. Citizens.
2. Suitable for Federal employment, as determined by background investigation.
3. Selectee may be subject to serving a one-year trial period.
4. More requirements are listed under Qualifications and Other Information.

• Because this position requires travel for official business, the selectee will be required to apply for a charge card within 30 calendar days of appointment. Individuals who have delinquent account balances from a previous Government charge card will be required to satisfy their existing obligation before a new card can be issued.
• A background investigation will be required for this position. Continued employment will be subject to the applicant's successful completion of a background security investigation and favorable adjudication. Failure to successfully meet these requirements will be grounds for termination.
• Throughout the recruitment and hiring process we will be communicating with you via email; therefore, it is imperative that the email address you provide when applying for this vacancy remains active. Should your email address change, please notify the point of contact identified in the vacancy announcement as soon as possible so that we can update our system.

Qualifications

This position is interdisciplinary and may be filled in any of the three job series; you must meet the educational requirements for at least one job series plus the additional experience/education as notated below to be minimally qualified and referred.

BASIC EDUCATION REQUIREMENT:

For Physical Scientist, GS-1301: Applicants must meet A or B below to satisfy the basic education requirement for Physical Scientist, all grade levels.

A. Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher degree in physical science, engineering or mathematics that included 24 semester hours or equivalent in physical science or related engineering science such as mechanics, dynamics, properties of materials, and electronics. OR

B. A combination of education and experience-course work as shown in "A" above (24 semester hours or the equivalent in physical science, engineering or mathematics) that included at least 24 semester hours or equivalent in physical science or related engineering science as described above, plus appropriate experience and/or additional education for a total of 4 years. The education or combined education and experience must be comparable in type, scope and thoroughness to that acquired through successful completion of a 4-year course of study as described in "A" above.

For Biologist, GS-0401: Applicants must meet A or B below to satisfy the basic education requirement for Biologist, all grade levels:

A. Degree in biological sciences, agriculture, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines appropriate to the position. OR

B. Combination of education and experience--courses equivalent to a major, as shown in A above (24 semester hours or the equivalent in biological sciences, agriculture, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines appropriate to the position), plus appropriate experience and/or additional education for a total of 4 years. The education or combined education and experience must be comparable in type, scope and thoroughness to that acquired through successful completion of a 4-year course of study as described in "A" above.

For Mathematical Statistician, GS-1529: Applicants must meet A or B below to satisfy the basic education requirement for Mathematical Statistician, all grade levels:

A. Degree: that included 24 semester hours of mathematics and statistics, of which at least 12 semester hours were in mathematics and 6 semester hours were in statistics. OR

B. Combination of education and experience--courses equivalent to a major, as shown in A above (24 semester hours or the equivalent in mathematics and statistics, of which at least 12 semester hours were in mathematics and 6 semester hours were in statistics, plus appropriate experience or additional experience.

Additional Education/Experience Requirement:

For GS-11:

In addition to the Basic Education Requirement listed above, applicants must meet A, B or C for GS-11 positions, all job series:

A. Possess one year of appropriate professional experience that is in or directly related to the duties of the position to be filled is qualifying if it is equivalent to at least the GS-09 level in the Federal service, and if it equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. Such experience includes: designing testing and training datasets for machine learning model building, using formal version control for code (e.g., git or similar), applying intermediate skills in various machine learning libraries or algorithms (e.g., TensorFlow, pyTorch, Keras, scikitlearn) to make predictions, and conducting analysis on modeled results. OR

B. Possess a Ph.D or 3 years of progressively higher-level directly related graduate education leading to a Ph.D. OR

C. Possess a combination of graduate level education as described in above, beyond the first two years of progressive graduate study, and appropriate professional experience that together meet the qualification requirements for this position.

For GS-12:

In addition to the Basic Education Requirement as stated above, applicants must meet the following to qualify for the GS-12 level:

Possess one year of appropriate professional experience that is in or directly related to the duties of the position to be filled is qualifying if it is equivalent to at least the GS-11 level in the Federal service, and if it equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. Such experience includes: selecting appropriate approaches from various machine learning methods (e.g., artificial neural networks, clustering tools, tree-based methods, regression methods), advanced skills in applying machine learning libraries to build predictive models, and experience interpreting modeled results.

You must meet all qualification and eligibility requirements for the position by the closing date of the announcement.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

--Basis of Rating: The government-wide direct hire authority for Physical Scientist GS-1301, Biologist GS-401 and Mathematical Statistician GS-1529 is being used to fill this position. All applicants who meet the eligibility requirements and minimum qualification requirements will be referred for consideration.